Where Can You Advertise for Free?

You’ve heard the old saying. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” And some would argue the same thing goes for small business advertising. But is it possible to advertise for free?

What about free social media and other sites where your business can get listed and gain visibility, for free? Can you really promote your products, services and brand for free online? Well, yes … and no.

Indeed, there are places where small businesses can advertise for free by getting free listings and free visibility, and we’ll give you a nice long list at the end of this section. But before we get to that list, it’s important to understand these five limitations when it comes to free business advertising:

Things to Remember if You Want to Advertise for Free

1. The more popular the free business advertising platform, the harder it is to stand out. Yes, you can advertise for free but some sites such as social media sites have so much noise that it may be hard to stand out. And some sites throttle back visibility to your own followers, unless you pay to “boost” your post. Or the site may not give much visibility unless you buy a “featured listing.”2. You have to invest time to see results — and time is money. Social media is a perfect example of this. You may have to devote paid staff time or hire a contractor to find content, locate and customize images, post updates, monitor replies, and participate in conversations. While not a paid ad placement, it still costs you. Smart businesses get software tools to cut down on some of the labor, but even tools can cost money. 3. Free platforms may start out as free, then evolve into paid platforms. If you start out using the free service, eventually you may have to pay to continue to get the same features. You can’t blame the platform for wanting to get compensated for its technology and usage. Examples are content curation platforms such as RebelMouse and Scoop.it, which evolved toward the paid model especially for business users. So while you may not pay for advertising, you have to pay to use the technology tool. 4. Free business advertising platforms may perform so-so. Some free platforms may be great for building brand recognition and overall presence (all very valuable, albeit longer term). But if you need customers right now, advertising may be a more immediate and direct route to getting sales or leads. And some free listing sites and platforms may not be able to deliver the reach you need. 5. Free platforms may be more powerful when combined with advertising. In other words, don’t look at free sites or paid advertising as “either – or.” Think of them as complementary parts of an overall marketing strategy that often work best together. Paid and free options can amplify the effect of the other.

If you are looking for “free advertising sites,” look at the following:

Free Social Media

There are hundreds of sites that could be called “social media.” But the following are the most popular and good places for advertising your business free:

Twitter offers a way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry with super short posts.

Facebook offers a way to promote your business with a Facebook page and frequent updates.

Pinterest offers a free way especially for eCommerce businesses and brands with a strong visual element to tell their stories.

Instagram allows you to post photos and short video to be shared with followers.

Reddit offers a free way to post content but self-promotion could get you banned.

Stumbleupon offers an easy way to market content to Stumbleupon users.

YouTube offers the opportunity to post videos for your small business.

Google+ is Google’s social channel and for that reason alone you should have your own presence there.

B2B social media

The following social media platforms are typically best for B2B (i.e., those businesses that sell to other businesses). Advertising your business free is possible on:

LinkedIn is an important business networking site — especially for B2B.

Slideshare is the place to share PowerPoints and other intensely visual content — mostly for a B2B community.

BizSugar is a social bookmarking site that lets you share small business content. (Small Business Trends owns and operates BizSugar.)

Quora is a forum that lets members share their knowledge on a variety of subjects to promote yourself as an expert in your industry.

Local Business Listings and Review Sites

If you own a local business — restaurant, motel or coffee shop — these sites will help you attract local customers and collect positive reviews. Consider these for advertising your business free.

Google My Business offers local business listings on Google properties, including Google Search and Google Maps.

Bing Places for Business is the Bing version of Google My Business and makes it simple to claim and verify your business listing.

Shawn Hessinger is the Executive Editor for Small Business Trends. A professional journalist with more than a decade of experience in the traditional newspaper business, he has another 10 years of experience in digital media for trade publications and news sites. Shawn has served as a beat reporter, columnist, editorial writer, bureau chief and eventually managing editor with responsibility for nine weekly newspapers, the Berks Mont Newspapers.

At present, advertisement plays an important role in expanding the business, in increasing the leads.
The users can do the promotion of business both in online and offline mode but at present the result of online promotion is far better than the offline promotion.
In online promotion we can easily track the audience and can plan strategy according to that.
I like the above shared article because the methods shared here are very simple but very effective and most important all the methods are completely free to use.
I have tried some of the above given methods and they really worked for me.

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